Female farm ownership 'pitifully low'
Amanda Draper takes a rest from working on the family farm as they bale over three thousand square bales in Riverstick, Co Cork. Picture: David Creedon.
The level of female farm ownership across the country was recently described in the Dail as being pitifully low.
Sinn Fein’s Deputy Matt Carthy, who raised the issue, said there are many female farmers across the country but few of them are recognised as such.
Describing gender equality as a key priority of his Department, the Agriculture, Food and Marine Minister Charlie McConalogue said it is also one of the founding values of the European Union and a key objective of the United Nations sustainable development goals.
The Programme for Government includes commitments to develop and implement a new national strategy for women and girls and to act on the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on gender equality.
He said the recently published draft agri-food strategy to 2030 recognises the importance of gender balance to the long-term sustainable future for primary producers.
It includes actions to promote and improve gender balance at all levels, including at senior management and board level.
Minister McConalogue said the Central Statistics Office (CSO) 2019 labour force survey showed that 13% of workers in the primary agriculture, forestry and fishing sector were female. For 2020, the figure was 15%, the highest since 2010.
The CSO’s 2016 farm structure survey recorded 71,700 women working on farms, of whom fewer than one quarter, or 16,100, were farm holders.
Minister McConalogue said it has been refreshing for the sector to see an increasing number of women take up leadership roles, including running and managing farms.
Some of the most high-profile, innovative, productive, and passionate farmers are women and they are leading the charge in that regard, he said.
Deputy Carthy said he was glad to hear the Minister is considering this matter an important one that needs to be addressed.
“If we are to have a farm structure process across the country that is reflective of the reality on the ground, it must involve culture change and policy changes,” he said.
Stressing the need for more women entrants to farming, he said: “We all have a role to play in encouraging farm families to move beyond the notion that it is the eldest son or another son who automatically takes over the farm.”
Deputy Carthy added that farms can become richer and better places if they have a broad spectrum of young people and women.
